Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Atsushi Shimoda

Minoru Yoshida

Shunji Maeda

Toshihiko Nakata

Sachio Uto

Kaoru Sakai

Takafumi Okabe

Shunzi Maeda

Masahiro Watanabe

Yuji Takagi

Yasuhiko Ozawa

Seiji Isogai

Yasuhiro Yoshitake

Kenji Watanabe

Masataka Shiba

Chie Shishido

Kenji Obara

Yuichi Hamamura

Takuo Tamura

Ichirou Ishimaru

Hiroshi Goto

Ryo Nakagaki

Kenji Oka

Susumu Tauchi

Toshiei Kurosaki

Keita Nogi

Teruo Nakata

Hideaki Kondo

Tadashi Suzuki

Takafumi Chida

Hideka Bamba

Syunji Maeda

Ryou Nakagaki

Hideka Banba

A vacuum processing apparatus which includes an atmospheric transfer chamber having a plurality of cassette stands for transferring a wafer, a lock chamber for storing the wafer, a first vacuum transfer chamber to which the wafer from the lock chamber is transferred, a transfer intermediate chamber connected to the first vacuum transfer chamber, and a second vacuum transfer chamber connected to the transfer intermediate chamber. At least one vacuum processing chamber is connected to the first vacuum transfer chamber, and two or more vacuum processing chambers are connected to a rear side of the second vacuum transfer chamber. A plurality of gate valves are disposed between the first vacuum transfer chamber and each of the lock chamber, the transfer intermediate chamber, and the vacuum processing chamber coupled to the first vacuum transfer chamber. A control unit is also provided for controlling operation of the gate valves.

Vacuum processing apparatus and operating method of vacuum processing apparatus

A method and apparatus for inspecting defects includes emitting an ultraviolet light from an ultraviolet light source, illuminating a specimen with the ultraviolet light in which a polarization condition of the ultraviolet light is controlled, controlling a polarization condition of light reflected from the specimen which is illuminated by the polarization condition controlled ultraviolet light, detecting the light reflected from the specimen, processing the detected light so as to detect defects, and outputting information about the defects. The ultraviolet light source is disposed in a clean environment supplied with clean gas and separated from outside.

Apparatus and method for inspecting pattern

A pattern inspection method and apparatus in which a deep ultraviolet light or an ultraviolet light is irradiated onto a specimen on which a pattern is formed, an image of the specimen which is irradiated with the deep ultraviolet light or the ultraviolet light is formed and the formed image is detected with a rear-surface irradiation type image sensor, which is sensitive to wavelengths of no greater than 400 nmm. A signal outputted from the image sensor is processed so as to detect a defect of the specimen by converting an analog image signal outputted from the image sensor to a digital image signal with an A/D converter, and a display displays information of the defect detected.

Method and apparatus for inspecting a pattern formed on a substrate

An apparatus and method for inspecting defects includes an illuminator for irradiating light having an ultraviolet wavelength emitted from a light source onto a specimen through a reflection objective lens, an image-former for forming an image of light reflected from the specimen by the illumination of the light from the illuminator, which is passed through at least the reflection objective lens, a detector which detects the image of light formed by the image-former with an image sensor, and an image processor for processing a signal output from the detector to detect defects on the specimen. The image sensor is a reverse-surface irradiation type image sensor.

Method and apparatus for inspecting pattern defects

A pattern inspection apparatus includes a light source which emits ultraviolet light, an irradiator which reduces coherency of the ultraviolet light and irradiates the coherency reduced ultraviolet light onto a specimen on which a pattern is formed through an objective lens, and a focus control means which projects light on the specimen from outside the objective lens, detects light reflected from the specimen by the projection and adjusts a height of the specimen relative to the objective lens. The apparatus further includes an image which forms an image of the specimen irradiated with the ultraviolet light and detects the formed image with a sensor, an image processor which processes a signal outputted from the sensor to detect a defect of the specimen, and a display which displays information of the defect detected by the image processor.

A method and apparatus for inspecting pattern defects emitting a laser beam, adjusting a light-amount of the laser beam, converting the light-amount adjusted laser beam into a slit-like laser light flux, lowering coherency of the slit-like laser light flux, and irradiating a sample with the coherence reduced slit-like laser light flux. An image of reflection light from the sample is obtained, and a detector is provided which includes the image sensor for receiving the image of the reflection light and for converting it into a detected image signal. An image processor is provided for detecting defects on patterns formed on the sample in accordance with the detected image signal.

An apparatus for inspecting defects including a table which mounts a specimen to be inspected and which is movable in a plane, an ultraviolet light source for emitting ultraviolet light, an illuminating unit for illuminating the specimen mounted on the table with light emitted from the ultraviolet light source, a detecting unit for forming an image of the specimen illuminated by the illuminating unit and for detecting the image with an image sensor, and an image processing unit for processing the image detected by the image sensor and for outputting information about defects detected on the specimen. The illuminating unit and detecting unit are disposed in a clean environment which is supplied therein with clean gas and which is separated from outside by a wall.

A system for analyzing defects in electronic circuit patterns, including: comparing position information of structural defects with position information of electrical faults and extracting corroborated defects having common position information between the structural defects and electrical faults; classifying images of extracted corroborated defects into critical defect images and non-critical defect images based on a pre-stored classification rule which defines critical and non-critical defects by referring to images of defects, position information of defects, and results of performing an electronic test; modifying the pre-stored classification rule by correcting classification of classified defect images displayed on the screen; and repeating the operations for each subsequent object, wherein for each present object under inspection, using a modified pre-stored classification rule with respect to a previous object, as the pre-stored classification rule for the operations with respect to the present object.

Method for analyzing circuit pattern defects and a system thereof

The present invention provides an image detection system capable of picking up a high resolution image of the surface condition of a circuit pattern-formed wafer without being affected by steep pattern steps, discontinuous reflectance distributions and optically transparent substances which are formed after resist patterns are formed and removed. A defect detection apparatus using such an image detection apparatus is also provided by the invention. The present invention is implemented by a configuration comprising a scanning stage having a sample mounted thereon, an image pickup system for picking up a surface image of the sample, height detection means for detecting the surface height of the sample at plural points including two points which are respectively on the opposite sides of the image pickup position in the scanning direction, sample height calculation means for calculating the height of the sample at the image pickup position by using the detected heights and focusing means for focusing the image pickup system by using the calculated sample height.

Image detection method and its apparatus and defect detection method and its apparatus

In order to allow critical flaws in an inspected item to be determined early during a production process, the present invention includes the following steps: a step of detecting defects in a production process for the inspected item and storing defect positions; a step of collecting detailed defect information and storing the detailed information in association with defect positions; a step of storing positions at which flaws were generated based on a final inspection of the inspected item; a step of comparing defect positions with positions at which flaws were generated; and a step of classifying and displaying detailed information based on the comparison results.

Method and system for analyzing circuit pattern defects

An apparatus for inspecting pattern defects on microscopic circuit patterns, with high resolution, comprises: an objective lens for detecting an image of a sample; a UV laser beam illumination arrangement for illuminating onto a pupil of the objective lens; am arrangement for lowering coherency of the UV laser illumination; a detector of integration type; and an arrangement for processing detected signal thereof.

Growing community of inventors

Hiratsuka, Japan

Atsushi Shimoda